Top 7 Things I Learned from Paleo f(x)

Jun 19, 2016|

It’s Better With Friends

Yes, meeting new people is part of what makes traveling so amazing. I enjoy making new friendships and learning about all the amazing things people do. In Austin, we stayed in an amazing Air BnB close to the conference. We had a beautiful pool literally a couple steps outside our patio door. We split the Air BnB with 3 friends we had met once, a year earlier, at the Bulletproof Biohacker Coach Training Program and Biohacking Conference. Of course, our own Chris was one of those friends, fellow Eris Fitter and Air BnB roommate.

With 5 of us staying together, we had instant friends to meet with for dinner, to share all the cool things we learned during the day and to relax, chat and swim in the pool at the end of each day. We also saved significant money over a hotel room and had a full kitchen to take advantage of. Yet, the 5 of us weren’t joined at the hip and split up at the conference to do our own thing. Meeting up with or making some friends and traveling is more amazing and magical.

Train Smarter with Biofeedback

This is a very simple method for determining which training methods are best for your body on any given day. Dave discusses the method here and here.

Sometimes we need to recover, perhaps by going for a long slow run or bike ride and other days we’re ready to rip into our workouts. This biofeedback method will help you determine which day it is. In addition, we may find that a variation on a lifting method, for example, a Jefferson Deadlift instead of a sumo or traditional deadlift is better for us today and may actual be corrective of imbalances we have created. All this using a 15 second method to test these things out with biofeedback. The method is deceptively simple. It involves bending over and doing a toe touch (really just allowing your fingers to travel as far down your legs as they can before you feel any sort of tension in your body, any tension at all. At the first sign of tension anywhere, you stop. Jen and Dave took us out on the Paleo f(x) floor to have us practice all this using real weights on deadlift, squats, pushups and pull-ups. I also learned about the Jefferson Deadlift, which I had never heard of and have now added to my lifting bank.

This is the Year of the Micro-biome

This is hugely important in health and longevity. According to Dr Perlmutter, you should be eating berries, prebiotics like cooked and cooled rice, cooked and cooled potatoes (cooked and then cooled rice and potatoes develop resistant starch, which is different than plain cooked rice eaten hot), plantains (green of course, so make them into pancakes like I do), and beans occasionally (soaked or sprouted). Dr Perlmutter contends that these foods, eaten once in a while and not all the time (definitely not making up a large portion of the diet), feed the good gut bacteria which is responsible for much of our health.

Your Food Cravings May Be Related to Stress

Melissa Hartwig, of the Whole 30, discussed how much of our food cravings, including cravings for sweets, actually comes from stress. Do you find yourself reaching for that forbidden donut left on the counter at work when no one is looking? Try reducing and working on your levels of stress and you will directly impact your cravings and ability to adhere to your eating plans. This means scheduling time for rejuvenation. Something other than watching movies and TV. For me it means getting in two 20 minute sessions of mindfulness meditation each day and reading a book before bed. It also includes checking in with myself during the day to assess my stress levels and taking a break and going on a walk when they get too high.

Kill Jet Lag

When traveling to various time zones, Ben Greenfield and Tim Ferriss both utilize the Russian, or Turkish or Japanese Bath. Upon landing they seek out a bathhouse. They then alternate between 15 minutes in a hot place (Sauna, Hot tub, Steam Room), and 5 minutes in a cold place (Cold Plunge Pool). For about an hour, they will rotate between hot and cold, spending more time in hot followed by a few minutes doing a cold plunge. This really helps the body to overcome the jetlag and begin to reduce any inflammation from travel. I didn’t know about this particular hack when we arrived in Austin on Thursday before the conference. Luckily, we used that exact hack anyway. We went directly to Onnit and had a good workout to counteract the effect of sitting on the plane.

The workout could have been better, but half the gym was taken up with supermodels doing a photoshoot. We then hit the sauna and afterward hit the Cryo chamber. We didn’t cycle this 3 or 4 times, but it definitely helped us feel bulletproof. Afterward we sampled some of the famous Onnit smoothies with their Hemp Force Protein.

Set Goals

Goals make it far easier to make huge improvements. Paleo f(x) includes an optional fitness assessment. This is basically a number of fit tests that give you a score and roll up to an overall score for all tests. There were Deadlifts (as many as possible with your bodyweight in 2 minutes), Pull ups (as many in 2 minutes as possible), 40 yard dash, medicine ball throw, vertical jump, rowing machine 500 yard sprint x2, shuttle run, chest press on an ARX machine and Leg Press on an ARX machine. Specifically for the deadlift, I paced myself and cranked out 49 deadlifts in 2 minutes of my bodyweight. I then heard the Paleo f(x) record was 71, set in 2015 by Dave Dellanave. So, I did some warmups and went for it. I broke the record and ended up with 72, a new Paleo f(x) record. After that, two other diehards tried to beat that goal and ended up tying the 72 deadlift record that day. Cheers to having a goal to hit!

Talk to Everyone!

Many of you can be the shy type that like to hang out in the back, get your information and then scram. Me too. But if we want to get more comfortable in social situations, we have to put ourselves out there a little.

I made some amazing connections at this conference, but only because I made a real effort. I didn’t do that by just hitting up the celebrities for pictures or book signings, nor by merely sampling all the amazing food from the numerous vendors. I made a real effort to talk to anyone I was standing, walking, or gawking next to. In most cases I made a new friend and often that friend was amazing. I met gym owners, nutritional therapists, coaches who charge $10,000 per client for training, famous Australian bloggers, medical doctors and others who were passionate about health. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Ask the person next to you about what’s important to them and what they’re excited about. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at what comes back.

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About Thaddeus Owen

Thaddeus is a full time worker, runs a small business and has a young family, and he's an athlete that loves to move. He has been in the corporate world for 18 years and has constantly sought out ways to create the circumstances that allow him to optimize my health. In his quest to lead a healthier life he has worked for and obtained his master’s degree in Holistic Nutrition, a Personal Trainer Certification, Sports Nutrition training and is a Certified Bulletproof Coach.